UK PM is heading for the Polish capital as part of efforts to ramp up coordination with European allies on defense.
The U.K. and Poland are working on a defense treaty that will cover everything from fending off Russia to tackling illegal immigration and safeguarding energy supplies, Prime Minister Keir Starmer will say Friday on a visit to Warsaw.
Just hours after agreeing a century-long cooperation deal with Ukraine in Kyiv while promising to dispatch extra air defense systems and missiles, Starmer is heading for the Polish capital as part of efforts to ramp up coordination with European allies on defense.
Late last year, the U.K. closed a bilateral treaty with Germany to bolster joint defense industrial work, while Starmer was also recently in Estonia for a meeting of the leaders of 10 countries under the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a NATO spin-off that includes mostly Nordic and Baltic states.
The coming U.K.-Poland Treaty will look to forge closer links between the two national militaries and coordinate efforts to tackle disinformation and hybrid threats, Downing Street said in a statement ahead of the visit.
« Talks are expected to begin this month to agree the treaty, which will be a key pillar of the U.K.’s wider reset with Europe and builds on recent agreements with France and Germany, » a statement said.
Britain and Poland already work together on the Miecznik AH140 Frigate program which aims to deliver new naval vessels to the Polish military in the 2030s, and the £4 billion Narew program on ground-based air defense which is a team up between MBDA’s U.K. unit and Poland’s PGZ.
Starmer’s tour of European capitals comes just days before the inauguration of Donald Trump — who has repeatedly argued that America’s allies should do more to fund their own defenses — as U.S. president.
